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IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON RELEASE OF CONFIDENTIAL STUDENT DATA

posted Feb 18, 2016, 12:33 PM by Nick Hadgis

Please read this message carefully, as you may want to take action regarding your student’s education records.

A recent lawsuit against the California Department of Education (CDE) is impacting all school districts across the state, including ours. The case has received significant attention from the media, so we want to provide you with more information on how it might affect families in our district.

In April 2012, two organizations, the Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association and the Concerned Parent Association, filed a lawsuit against the CDE alleging widespread, systemic non-compliance by local education agencies with special education laws. The suit also alleges the CDE fails to monitor, investigate and correct such non-compliance in accordance with the law. The CDE denies these allegations and is actively defending the litigation.

Our district was not involved in the lawsuit and is not the subject of any of the suit’s allegations. Nonetheless, as a part of this lawsuit, CDE has been ordered by the court to release all data it has collected on general and special education students statewide since Jan. 1, 2008.

NOTE: The CDE will produce documents in the context of the litigation and subject to a protective order (according to CDE, documents won’t become part of the Court’s public records and they will likely be returned or destroyed at the end of litigation).

For more information regarding the release of this data, visit this CDE website​. You may also contact the California Department of Education at 916-319-0800.

Parents/Guardians may complete and mail in an Opt-Out Form to prevent the release of student data: http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/di/ws/documents/form2016jan26.pdf. This must be done by April 1, 2016.

F3 has published a NewsFlash with more information on this lawsuit: http://www.f3law.com/newsflash.php?nf=491